Slashdot Mirror
Latest SnapStream PVR App Reviewed
martensitic writes "Yahoo! posted this positive AP review of the newest version of a third-party PC app designed to compete with TiVo and Microsoft's Media Center. SnapStream 's 'Beyond TV 3' (sounds like something Fox would produce) allows streaming to standard web browsers for watching on other computers in your home, and promotes automatic commercial break recognition that has been downplayed in other products. (Previously mentioned here.)"
Because hackingthemainframe.com was down for a little while today. But now it is back up, and everyone is happy.
foo bar
FIRST POAST!
yabba dabba do!
Well it's good to know we have another Tivo alternative out there. Hey does it easily allow you to copy your recorded shows to your PC too? :)
This space is not for rent.
If anybody has one of these I have two questions.
1) Does your PC have to be in the same room as your TV.
2) Does your PC have to have somebody logged in? In other words can it run as a service under W2K.
Thanks is advance.
The best way to support the US war effort is to continue buying American products.
You need a pretty good PC to run it, and most people would find a standalone TiVo easier to use.
"We like nonfiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in a time where we have fictitious election results, that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons" - Michael Moore's acceptance speech at the Oscars. Lets face it, Michael Moore is an idiot and we should take back his Oscar. Where does he get off calling our President fictitious...moreover, sending a quarter of a million troops into war for "fictitious reasons." Moore along with the Dixie Chicks, should pack their bags and make a b-line for nearest communist country. Their personal attacks on our beloved President are cowardly and utterly disrespectful. Mr. President Bush, if you ever read this article, take peace in knowing that while the majority of Hollywood is not taking sides with you, the majority of America supports your cause as it is in the best interest of national security. God Bless your soul, God Bless the troops in Iraq, God Bless America! I'm glad I voted for you. And just in case if any of you out there are wondering what party I am? I'm not a republican, but an independent. Remember, most of what Moore says are lies. Including elements that are included in his movies. To find out the truth please visit MOORE WATCH.
How does this compete with Tivo, I mean it's just software. The hardware still needs to be supplied.
use mythtv for free and install the windows frontend.
I mean seriously. When you're shitfaced like me, and you s till can understand whats going on on Slashdot, whatever you're readinga bout has to be cool . I mean hell, these guys really know what theya re doing. they've kinda realized the kind of g33k market that wants to buy something like this. i mean it beats the hell out of hte golf channel. but if you do like the golf channel then you can record it on this bitch
Careful. Knowing TiVo, they'll probably sue.
Sorry, went to download the demo- and it started putting .net on my computer.. I'll pass for now.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
First off, I think that this is a bad post, seems like another slashdot ad.
Second, I have beyond tv 3 and have really enjoy it. I am never home and it records all my tv shows. That way, when I do have time to watch tv, I can skip the commercials (it dog ears the commercials so you can skip forward) and watch only what matters to you.
Even when I am unable to get to my computer, I can break out my treo 600 and program to record any tv show.
The only problem with it is the security model is a bit lax. You can always find people who have their setups wide open (port 8129) on google thanks to the web interface. People really need to starrt locking that down.
Victory is gained, not in knowing your opponents next move, but in preempting them.
Size.
What's the point of all this only to watch it on some puny 21" monitor? Last I heard this was 2004, not 1974. No, if you can't watch it sprawled on a comfortable sofa with a nice screen at least 27" inches large, then what's the point?
When convergence TRULY gets here, give me a ring. Otherwise, Zenith and the ilk will still get my dollars.
I really enjoy my Beyond TV version 3 setup:
:)
WinPVR card, 200 GB hard drive, a DVD burner, and Beyond TV.
It saves the shows in a standard file format, and I can use other software to convert to a more compressed format and archive to DVD.
At one point, I had problems with it frequently crashing, but downloading the newest update solved that problem.
I still use my TiVo, but I am slowly switching my TV viewing to the Beyond TV system.
Do you know what .net is? Why are you afraid of it? It's part of WindowsUpdate, perhaps you'd feel more comfortable getting the framework from that site. Think of it as the newer VB runtimes.
Linux: Free if your time is worthless.
It is a damn shame, but this is not the Tivo you are looking for.
Fuck that? Fuck you. Alot of windows apps use .NET now. Get the Fuck over it. You're already fucking using windows. Why the fuck not download fucking .NET? Does using fuck make you feel special fuck-face?
Fuck off until you can make a decent argument, or at least a half-ass bullet list backing your fucking opinion.
I have to give these guys credit, they have come up with a wonderful idea...
I realize that stable PC-based PVR software has existed for a few years now. But nothing designed for your typical non-geek Windows user. Snapstream has managed to take the idea of "I already have a PC, why should I but a TiVo that basically contains a PC, rather than using what I have" to the mainstream masses.
For anyone who says "just use Myth", you've totally missed the point. I agree, and personally would recommend any geeks use it. But for those who have only heard of Linux from IBM's ads, and who need their nephew to come over every time they accidently change their homepage... This product has a LOT of potential.
And kudos to them for sticking to the idea of end-user rights (at least those comparable to a standard VCR)... Not wavering on the "skip a commercial" feature by calling it something like "30 second advance" or making you activate it by a special hack, they put it right out there as a selling point. And sending the encoded media to any PC on your LAN, rather than requiring you to physically swap out your HDD to get the content off a semi-proprietary box. I sincerely wish them well in their impending string of lawsuits from the MPAA.
YOU FAIL IT!
Think of it as the newer VB runtimes.
.Net, most of which have
no basis in reality.
Mod parent up. Seriously.
People seem to have all these spooked-out misconceptions about
As the parent (basically) said, you can consider it just a new API for windows, comparable to the VB runtimes or, more accurately, an extention to the idea of "Win32", which includes (as the name would suggest, thought not entirely based on) quite a lot more inbuilt support for network-oriented tasks.
I found this cool program the other day, but it needed the C standard library... I'll pass for now.
Makes me wonder if people realize you can get Microsoft's command line C# compiler and all the associated headers and libraries for free(beer, not speech). All you have to do is download the .NET Framework SDK and Platform SDK from http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/. Comes with lots of documentation too.
I had the same gut reaction to .net. Didn't need it for anything else, so why should I be forced to install it now. I'm sure they could do it some other way, but whatever their reasoning... it is what they used.
;)
.net... you needs it... you wants the precious.
I'm old at heart and I just got used to VB
The feeling wears off after a few days. Don't worry, it will pass.
Pretty soon, you will crave
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
I was reading in Maximum PC about Personal Video Station 3, another alternative to Tivo et al. One of the interesting properties of PVS3 was the ability to stream pre-recorded shows over the internet if you wanted to watch your shows on the road, also you could change your programming choices over the internet from the office or otherwise.
It did not mention any automatic advert skipping, although I wonder how efficiently such a feature could be implemented (how would it detect the difference between adverts and shows?)
Post apocalyptic gaming goodness
Why the hell are people not supporting digital TV? It's a veritable goldmine!
The first company to produce decent software that works with all current digital TV cards, even if it's only the dvb-t standard used in Australia, will make a fucking mint.
At the moment people are waiting with baited breath for some decent windows software to come out, and are willing to pay money for it. So why the fuck isn't anybody writing the software?
I'd happily buy this if it supported digital TV, but like most of the other crap on the market, it only works in the US, and only for analogue TV. Somebody please, if you're out there, write some decent software for Australian digital TV tuners!
EGG, the Electronic Gamers Guild
Think of it as the newer VB runtimes
:)
I thought you were trying to make him less scared
Everything will be taken away from you.
Since quitting the Navy six months early at age 27 so he could run for Congress on an antiwar platform, John Kerry has built a political career on his service in Vietnam. His unsuccessful 1970 congressional bid lasted only a month, during which it proved impossible for even he to get to the left of the winner, Robert Drinan, but it forged a conflicting political persona - one hammered out between his combat medals earned in the Mekong delta and the common cause he made with the enemy upon his return home.
Now, at age 60, the junior Democratic senator from Massachusetts is milking his veteran status once again in an effort to show that he's tougher and more patriotic than the man he seeks to replace, President George W. Bush. And, as unrepentant as ever for his pro-Hanoi activism, he is just as conflicted in 2004 as he was in the 1960s.
If there is any consistency in Kerry's political career, it is his in-your-face use of that four-month stint in Vietnam. He enlisted like many other young men of privilege, trying to serve without going to the front lines. When in 1966 it looked like his draft number was coming up during his senior year at Yale University, and already having spoken out in public against the war, Kerry signed up with the Navy under the conscious inspiration of his hero, the late President John F. Kennedy. As a lieutenant junior grade, Kerry skippered a CTF-115 swift boat, a light, aluminum patrol vessel that bore a passing resemblance to PT-109. He thought he'd arranged to avoid combat. "I didn't really want to get involved in the war," he later would tell the Boston Globe. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling, and that's what I thought I was going to do."
Soon, however, Kerry was reassigned to patrol the Mekong River in South Vietnam, a formative experience for his political odyssey. The official record shows that he rose to the occasion. It was along the Mekong where he first killed a man, aggressively fighting the enemy Viet Cong and reportedly saving the lives of his own men, earning a Bronze Star, a Silver Star for valor, and three Purple Hearts in the process.
Kerry opted for reassignment to New York City, where - as a uniformed, active-duty officer - he reportedly began acting out the antiwar feelings he had expressed before enlisting. Press reports from the time say that he marched in the October 1969 Moratorium protests - a mass demonstration by a quarter-million people that had been orchestrated the previous summer by North Vietnamese officials and American antiwar leaders in Cuba (see sidebar, p. 27). Kerry had found his purpose in life. The New York Times reported on April 23, 1971, that at about the time of the Moratorium march, Lt. Kerry had "asked for, and was given, an early release from the Navy so he could run for Congress on an antiwar platform from his home district in Waltham, Mass."
For Kerry, politicizing the nation's war effort for partisan purposes was the right thing to do, in contrast to the violent revolutionary designs of colleagues who were out to destroy the system. Kerry didn't want to take down the establishment. He wanted to take it over. His aborted, monthlong 1970 congressional campaign was a victory for him politically, as it landed him on television's popular Dick Cavett Show, where he came to the attention of some of the central organizers of the antiwar/pro-Hanoi group known as Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW).
VVAW was a numerically small part of the protest movement, but it was extremely influential through skillful political theater, the novelty of uniformed combat veterans joining the Vietniks, and a ruthless coalition-building strategy that forged partnerships with the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), its Trotskyite rival, the Socialist Workers Party, and a broad front that ranged from pacifists to supporters of the Black Panthers and other domestic terrorist groups.
Kerry signed on as a full-time organizer and member of th
Tried it with my all-in-wonder radeon 7500...
:(
Very slow and sluggish, glitches while watching tv, and while wathing live TV the sound was totally out of sync.
On top of that the installation fried my ATI TV software so I had to reinstall that.
This space available.
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT 02:25 PM ET
RUSH: Here's Kim, Phoenix, Arizona.
CALLER: I'm still laughing. Dittos, Rush, from a second-generation listener. My dad used to listen to you in Sacramento.
RUSH: Thank you, Kim, nice to have you with us.
CALLER: Well, I have good news for you. I just want to tell you how I think Bush's tax cuts are helping me. I did our taxes this week and I do them on TurboTax, and at the end TurboTax does a comparison of last year's versus this year's taxes, how much you paid, how much you're getting back, blah, blah, blah. And I was ecstatic to notice that although my husband and I made $5,000 more in taxable income this year, that our actual tax bite went down by $1500.
RUSH: Yeah, and you know something, this is going to be happening all over the country. When do you think you're going to be getting your refund? Or do you get a refund? Do you get a refund, do you do it that way?
CALLER: I'm getting a refund much bigger than I anticipated, and we're going to spend it!
RUSH: Well, but I mean you haven't gotten it yet. The point is, you recently filed, this refund, yours and everybody else's are going to start pouring in a few weeks and it is going to make a huge difference. The reality of these tax cuts already shows up in people's withholding but when these refunds start coming in it's going to show up even more, and that way the real size and impact these tax cuts is going to be illustrated. And at the time people have more money in their pockets, the only thing the Democrats can do is accuse them of being selfish. The only thing the Democrats can do, "Well, yeah, you may be getting a bigger refund, but kids are starving out there, people's Social Security is going to have to be cut." The Democrats, the only thing they can do to people like you, Kim, is try to make you feel guilty for getting that refund because they can't praise it, they can't praise the tax cut, they can't think it's neat, so they've got to somehow criticize it, and the way they'll do it is to criticize you, try to make you feel guilty for it.
CALLER: Oh, I won't feel guilty. In fact, I earned it. You know, I don't know why I have to give it up all the time. I can't understand why anyone would want to vote for a man who wants to take this back. I just think that's an absolute ludicrous thing.
RUSH: Well, let me tell you who. Let me tell you who. There are, and I've talked to them. There are some seasoned citizens in this country who only have their Social Security, and if the Democrats go out there and say, "Hey, you know, these people are getting your increased Social Security benefits," then you're going to have people out there who are going to get very upset at these tax cuts, and that's how the Democrats will do it, make no mistake about it. Keep a sharp eye. It's going to be an interesting thing to see because it's going to be a great in-hand, in-pocket illustration.
then please be sure to read this existing thread for a discussion. For me, I haven't found the best one yet. Even Beyond TV didn't fit my needs. It's getting there, but no payment from me. You can read the posts by me, antdude.
I am currently using ATI's buggy MMC v8.9 for now for my Radeon 9800 All-In-Wonder card. Please post a reply if you know any other PVR software that you know will work with these requirements:
1. Can I install this program with ATI MultiMedia Center (MMC) v8.9 installed? Or do I have to uninstall MMC due to conflicts?
2. Can I watch scheduled TV shows in Timeshifting mode? Basically, I have the recorder program record an hour TV show from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM. I come home, and I already missed the first 15 minutes. I want to be able to jump into the TV show from the beginning (recorded already) and catch up to the live TV feed (include skipping commercials). This is like TiVo. I don't have to wait until the program finishes recording. MMC is annoying without this method.
3. Can I record with captions? ATI's MMC VCR video format can, but not DivX, MPEG-2, etc.
4. Can I watch my recorded shows and Timeshift recordings (in progress) on my TV (TV out fullscreen overlay) and still use my computer on primary screen (monitor)? If so, then can it show captions if available?
5. Is the low volume a problem since I have a SB Live! card? MMC's recording result very low audio volume.
I hope this helps for other ATI Radeon AIW users who are looking for a MMC replacement.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Seems to be the latest thing.
Ati's latest TV software also requires it.
And so far they both seem buggy as shit. I reverted back to an old ATI version after no end of trouble.
This space available.
I found this cool program the other day, but it needed the C standard library... I'll pass for now.
Hah! King of the One Liners!
I haven't seen a PC TV card can can output a signal to a television that was worth pissing on.
I've been using the Beyond TV 3 trial version for a week now, it works well and I really like the web interface.
However although it advertises that it can also 'stream live tv' this functionality doesn't work with some very popular PVR cards (the WinTV 250/350 series) that do mpeg2 encoding in hardware.
This functionality is promised for a future version, but its something to consider if you own one of these cards.
Many people argue that MythTV is better, but I say to them "How many hours did you spend installing and configuring it?" MythTV could effectively ruin companies like SageTV and Snapstream if they A.) Made it very easy to instal...and I mean easier than KnoppMyth (still a pain in the ass) or B.) GASP ported it to windows!
WTF is .net and VB runtimes?
I'll pass, having installed their previous efforts.
;-)
And besides, my (here we go again) MythTV box does the same... and also lets me:
- Play my giant MP3/Ogg collection
- Have a slideshow of all the digital photos I've ever taken.
- watch DVD's and rip them if they're any good.
- play about 40G of movies on command,and share them on my local network.
- Have a nice auto-updating weather display, with forecasts and satellite photos.
- Read a bunch of RSS newsfeeds
All of which is accessible from my remote.... and free, if your time is worth nothing
Seriously, first person who makes a 'standard' mythTV box for under a grand (AUD) will make a killing.
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
...over simply just buying a Tivo.
If you are using anything but a hardware mpeg encoder you may not be too happy with its performance. The software mpeg encoder they used isn't that great. The output looks much worse than captures done with, say, virtualdub. Doesn't look like it even comes from the same card. But if you don't mind spending a few bucks (I hear they've been on sale a lot lately for $99US) on a Hauppauge PVR-250 hardware mpeg encoder card I think you'll be very happy with BTV. The encoder it has is definitely its weak point.
"Sorry, went to download the demo- and it started putting .net on my computer.. I'll pass for now. "
Yeah! Billy's getting his tentacles everywhere! Well not HERE!!
There, that should recover some of my karma lost for that untimely Mac joke I made earlier.
"Derp de derp."
Seriously, the numbers are not high enough now to have that effect, but can you imagine having to pay for every channel the same way you do for HBO and Showtime? Or, maybe the marketing people will become more savvy and include marketing in a way we can not skip over. Like web pages with embedded marketing (product placement)...
This is more interesting to me than the ability to save the movies in the first place. The question in the end for the business, is where does the money come from. These machines change that dynamic. What are /.s willing to put up with in terms of advertising that would not be deletable to continue to have TV that is "end-viewer" discounted. Since the reality is that the ad dollars are paid for when you purchase the products, could the masses have the vision to see moving those dollars from product purchases to content and delivery fees?
InnerWeb
Freud might say that Intelligent Design is religion's ID.
I know about myth tv and similar software but i am in search of free software that like beyond tv would allow me to stream live video to other computers while allowing me to change channels. I have yet to find any solution. I checked out the now dead(?) VideoLAN but couldnt find anything about the remote(computer) changing of channels in the docs. Help please.
David
A good IR blaster would replace the tuner. I looked a few months ago and couldn't find a IR Blaster compatible with DISH TV.
I can't imagine anyone with a PVR setup like this running a system off of rabbit ears. All the cable systems in our region are moving desired programming to channel numbers greater than 125 as a move to force those customers to convert to cable boxes.
I might try to build a universal button pusher out of Lego Mindstorms so i can finally take control of my sat dish system.
It just boggles my mind that I can buy a Universal Remote from Radio Shack for under $10 ATI doesn't provide one with their cards.
fatAl mistakes, Gawker At most
I found this cool TiVo replacement just 5 minutes ago, but it needed a computer... I'll pass for now.
It's fairly simple to enable security so strangers don't have access to your television signal or recordings.
Oh dear, we mustn't let others have access to free media.
[amAzingkreskin.com]
I was using Cyberlink PowerVCR II for a while, as it came with my capture card... I had tried demos of Snapstream PVS in the past, and decided to have a look at BeyondTV...
It worked so-so with my capture card, but I wasn't too impressed with how it did MPEG formats. I decided to uninstall. From then onward, PowerVCR never worked again... it would begin a recording and freeze the entire machine within a minute. I've yet to bother re-imaging the machine, and just switched to WinDVR instead.
BeyondTV is the most polished PVR windows product I've seen, but something about it or its leftovers was dirty and didn't play well with PowerVCR. YMMV.
For those of us who use our desktops as a PVR instead of dedicating a machine to it, I highly recommend a TvTime and vcr combination under Linux. MythTV is a overkill for my needs. TvTime is hands down the best tv viewing program, IMO, and there are web frontends for vcr to make scheduling recordings as snap. There are some features lacking in this setup that a normal PVR system would have, such as live rewind and such, but I think there's alot of people going through way more trouble than they need to because they don't know there's any other way..
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
something about a 22MB download vs a meg or so for VB6 runtimes worries me....
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
Well one of the spooked feelings about .NET is all the open ended advertiseing microsoft has been doing. When .NET was first comming around it was this great, can do anythign better and more secure buzz, running around from the microsoft websites, advertisements, and even competitors. They even described it as a programing enviroment simular to java and then say it is so much more capable. (of doing what i'm not sure) It wasn't untill recently i discovered it was basically an extention of c# with security in mind (i know thats over simplifying it)
.NET. from drm, rites management to aplications authenification and more. they touted >net for a while as being the new microsoft passport were you had on app with one password that stored all your information to make transactions, logins or secure whatever easier on the internet.
.NET because it is supposed to be so many different things (as presented by microsoft) but know one actually know what. Most users won't be able to read thrru the hype they use to build stock prices up or talk a companie into bying it. instead they are left with this "i'm not sure what it does but sounds like it could cause problem" additude. some of these problem being with haveing only one cd of a game and playing it on more than one computrer in your house. we already know that most microsoft products phone home but don't know what is sent. so there is the reason people are scared about .NET
The point is that when microsoft talks about anythign new that seems unpopular they try to link it to
In short people are scared of
I always compare the .Net to a Java virtual machine. I found that this page explains a lot about where the .Net environment fits into the operating system, especially the picture (i love pictures!).
Disclaimer: This opinion was created without the use of any facts
I've been using Beyond TV for quite some time now and have been in their beta program for more than 2 years. It's truly amazing how far their product has come and it's inspiring to see how close a relationship they keep with their customers. It's true, software encoding mpeg will always be a dog because of it's nature. All of you without hardware encoding like the ATI boards, you're pretty much out of luck, be it with Beyond TV or Myth or whatever. These products only shine with 2-3% cpu usage when you start using PVR-250's etc. To even things up with Myth TV btw, Snapstream is now in beta mode for Beyond Media. This is a super slicked interface for all your music, photos, slideshows, 80 gazillion gigs of mp3's and movies.. you name it, it can do it with very nice graphics. So, to sum up, they're listening and making good at lightning speed on the wishes of their customers. I've paid a total of 90 bucks and have gotten more than 2 years worth of updates and new versions without any additional costs. In the last year, they got very serious about their product (probably got big investment capital) and people who didn't like old versions owe it to themselves to give it another try. It's a totally different product at this point.
so ladies come on down...
-milkki
I have been palying with for a week or so now. Works pretty well, what really sold me on it is when you selecta show to record you can set it to record new shows but skip reruns
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... so how much do you pay for electricity?
tivo vs ordinary pc running beyond tv vs linux PVR? is it significant?
Here is a not-so-short list of software for DVB cards (I guess some of those also support the DVB-T flavor and implement timeshifting). Some of those are free, and some cost money. It seems that the most popular one now is ProgDVB.
I can understand why rites management may be not welcomed in certain circles :-)
a tivo replacement that needs windows? i'll pass for now... or better, forever...
Beyond TV requires a lot of fiddling in order for it to work properly. The settings which produce the clearest picture are not those you would guess. In order to stream you need to stay with WMV, which is software-based. So to reduce the CPU problem (video is like no load factor you have ever seen), the first thing to do is to reduce the number of dots and frames you are sending. This will actually result in a better encoding. An analog NTSC broadcast is rarely more than 320x200, usually it is much less than that. You'd be surprised how clear 320x200 or even 180x120 look full-screen. Also bear in mind that with cable or DSL you are unlikely to have more than 150Kbps of uplink capacity, so if you want to stream TV shows from home to your office at lunch hour, you have to settle for the maximum upload speed of your home connection.
- n. wmv
Try this:
Windows Media V7 codec
180x120
15fps
50% quality
video 130Kbps
audio 20Kbps
Another suggestion is that in order to view streams on demand, all you need to do is construct a URL of the form:
mms://ipaddress/videofolder/showname-yyyy-mm-dd
I installed an FTP server on the Windows box then wrote a web page that made an FTP connection to the box to create a list of filename-based URLs for on-demand streaming. You get this for free from Windows Media after Beyond TV has created the WMV files in the video folder you specify during setup.
I encourage patience, video is a cruel mistress but the rewards of persistence are great.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=17 38&ncid=1738&e=9&u=/zd/20040305/tc_zd/1209 74
Like the author of this pondering, I would prefer to see Apple make a media-centric Mac with the same footprint as most component consumer electronics items like DVD players and tuners. It would be awesome. Stack it and place it in your components cabinet (hopefully an open aired one for good ventilation). The machine would hook up to your plasma or HDTV. That's the problem with Windows Media Center PC's. They do not complement an audio/videophile's components. By using the plasma and/or the HDTV screen, the Media Mac would take charge of all the other devices yet it would still retain the media-ness of the whole system. To have iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD along with timeshifting in your living room with the help of a wireless mouse, keyboard, and friendly remote control would simply rock.
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
I've wanted to get SnapStream's software for quite a while now, but unfortunately it seems that Leadtek the manufacturer of my tuner card (a Winfast 2000 XP) refuses to work with SnapStream to resolve compatability issues. The WinFast software is horribly buggy and generally poorly designed, so I'm frustrated, to say the least.
Once I have the money I'm going to buy one of the SnapStream bundles and get rid of this card for good. My recommendation is don't buy Leadtek.
I have recentlly gotten back into the "Record TV to PC" world lately. The most ironic thing is that I worked so long getting all the CAT5 cable to go away by creating a completlly wireless LAN...Just in time to have a big fat TV Cable sticking out of the back of all my machines.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
Snapstream, BTV, or whatever they want to call it this week is crap. After paying $60 for it, no less than FOUR times in the past two months, it has reverted to the 'trial' version (expired, of course), which in turn caused it to delete my recording schedule, and fail to record what I had set up.
Why did this happen? Because Snapstream's servers went offline. That's right, if the software can't 'phone home' (even when it's THEIR FAULT), you are automatically considered a pirate, and your BOUGHT AND PAID FOR software stops working.
Supposedly, they're 'fixing' it, but they've been doing that since the first time it happened back in December. It's not going to stop 'checking in', only that if it can't connect it won't revert to a useless expired trial.
And forget about 'official' support. They do have forums with some very knowledgeable people (users), but if you want to get a response from anyone officially connected with Snapstream, you'll be waiting forever (if you're lucky enough to get EVER get a response).
Putting all that behind for a minute, the software is buggy (sometime just forgets to record, blue-screens for no reason, jittery recording and playback). Of course, the first thing they'll blame is your hardware, or other software you have installed. The same, exact system (which exceeds their recommended hardware specs considerably) has no trouble running other apps like SageTV or myHTPC with the TV plugin.
Bottom line, there is VERY little positive to offset all of the bugs, and I have a serious problem paying for software that is rendered useless whenever their servers crash.
I investigated the alternatives a few months ago, and picked Frey Technologies' SageTV ( http://www.sage.tv ) over Snapstream's BeyondTV.
.Net
Features I liked in SageTV:
1) uses TV cards with hardware encoding cards only. Cards using software encoding need not apply.
2) low CPU requirements, since the the encoding is done by the video card.
3) handles multiple TV tuner cards automatically -- I use two Hauppauge PVR-250 cards. BeyondTV supports only one card. (The wildest SageTV setup I've read about included two PVR-250s, one PVR-350, four of a USB variety and one ATI E-Home Wonder.)
4) free TV schedule/guide. They use Zap2It for those, and I was already using www.zap2it.com for my TV watching plans.
5) ability to use directories across the network for recording or serving shows
6) ability to stream mpeg2 video to a SageClient on another PC. (BeyondTV can't stream mpeg2 -- either record in a Windows Media format or spend your time decoding/re-encoding to make a copy you can stream!)
7) ability to watch live TV, effectively as if it was already a complete recording (start late, jump around, etc). BeyondTV does this if you record in mpeg2, but it can't stream that file to another machine!
8) ability to automatically control SageRecorder (optional related program) on another networked PC that has its own TV card.
9) full-featured, time-limited trial versions of SageTV, SageRecorder and SageClient.
10) does not require or use
11) does not require DirectX9
12) open beta program -- beta installs over any registered copy.
The most commonly used card is the Hauppauge PVR-250. SageTV has out-of-the-box support for Hauppauge and another remote, and support for third-party IR receivers.
While I write this, I'm watching mpeg2 video streamed to a window to this 650MHz notebook. SageClient is the remote client version, which receives and displays the streamed mpeg2 shows and also lets you control the recording schedule remotely.
Sounds like a decent product, but I think anyone who says it is better than tivo is just flat out wrong. First of all, its not a device. I don't want to sit in front of my PC to watch tv, and I don't want to have to run a wire from my PC to my TV. Also, because its not a device, it requires your PC to be running the stuff all the time. Thats fine if you buy a PC just for using as a PVR, but that takes away your argument that its cheaper. A tivio is MUCH cheaper than buying another PC. With my tivo, I went to the store, picked it up, came home, plugged in a few cables, and it just works. No fuss at all. I didn't have to bother with any hardware, and I didn't have to install any software. Its just ready to go. Thats a beautiful thing. Now, this "Skip ads" feature that is supposed to be so wonderful... I may be wrong, but after reading up on it, it sounds like it takes a long time for it to figure out what is a comercial and what isn't. Honestly, its pretty damn simple to hit fast forward on the tivo, and then to hit play again. I never watch commercials, but yes, I do have to push 2 buttons. There is one more reason that nothing will replace my DirecTiVo. Dual built in DirecTV receivers. With my tivo I can record 2 things at once, and I get FULL quality. NOTHING else does digital recording, and as far as I know the only other software that allows recording of multiple streams is MythTV. To do what I am doing with MythTV would require me to have two capture cards with hardware encoding, two directv receivers that can be controled via serial cable, and it would still not be digitial.
As a PAID customer of the 3.x series, I am impatiently waiting for fixes that will resolve the application crashing on some systems.
If you are thinking about buying, take the time to read the user forums on snapstream.com.
The end user helping end user support has been considerably better than the official answers in some cases.
I wanted the new features of 3.4.
I ended up reverting to 3.3 to have the system work. 3.3 runs with no problems. Love the program.
My concern is that currently a released version (3.4) filled with problems and the company's answer is "want to try the beta of 3.5?"
No, I do NOT want to try a beta on my dedicated video server to resolve the problems in your RELEASED application.
-------------
That all being said:
Athlon 1.4
1 GB RAM
Windows XP SP1
Nvidia FX 5200
ATI TV Wonder
200 gb of storage
Snapstream 3.3
The ATI does the capturing with the NVidia handling the TV/Out. The output is run into a modulator that allows me to feed the media server into any tv connected to the antenna wire on channel 4. I have ripped all of our DVDs to xvids, so the kids no longer get an opportunity to scratch them up. Drop them into one of the directories that Snapstream knows about, and they are available for the kids to watch on demand.
I really like the ability to set up recordings from the road. Using the web interface and coming back into the system from a remote location lets me check recordings, setup new recordings, and even download/watch recordings.
During the Womans World Cup last fall, my daughter and I were in DC for 6 games. We took a side trip to Philly for 2 games. At the time I was playing with the 3.1 or 3.2 trial version. We would hit a wifi hotspot in the evenings, eat some dinner while we downloaded games that we had recording from other venues.
System will also allow you to watch a live stream through the web interface. My father who is overseas, occasionally wants to watch sporting events or other shows. He comes in, sets up an event, and watches.
I'm not regretting buying the application. The version I thought I was buying didnt work as promised. The previous version DOES run as promised, so it is functioning quite well for me.
----- LoboSoft specializes in Digital Language Lab
My myth box can also play emulated games
Just when it seems the world is going to hell in a handbasket and everything is changing.... Come to \. where any discussion topic migrates to M$ bashing. I love you guys.
Someone mentioned KnoppixMyth earlier and I went a googlin'. No such thing, but there is KnoppMyth and you can find it here.
I just installed Beyond TV 3 on my Windows XP machine last night after reading the /. review. At first the app seemed pretty cool, easy to install (except for having to install the .NET Framework). It automatically found my cheap-o $40 dollar capture card and scanned all the channels. One thing I did really like was the channel guide, and how easy it is (or appears to be) to record any program of your choice. Thats when the problems started happening. Right when I tried to record a TV show, the program crashed on me. So I try to reload, crashes twice. So I reboot, and it keeps on crashing before or when it gets to the main screen. So that was my experience with Beyond TV 3. Maybe I will try it again, maybe wait for a new version, I don't know. I just didn't feel like troubleshooting/reinstalling it all night when I feel it should work fine on its own.
I honestly don't see what the hell people are complaining about.
.Net Framework and the Java Runtime Environment. (Note that I said from the user's perspective so don't go flaming me with tech-centric comments, I know what the differences are!!).
.Net Framework is 22Mb.
From the end-user's perspective there really isn't all that much of a different between the
The
Sun's JRE clocks in at 15Mb.
The JRE is bundled with most PCs in some form or another, or it's required for alot things normal users do (ie Applets etc). The framework itself may be 22Megs, but that's it. It's not like it's consuming massive amounts of PC resources. Once it's on you don't have to worry about it.
I really don't see what the big deal is with some people being 'scared' to simply install another framework for running applications.
Actually, I have an Athlon XP 2000+ w/ an AIW 7500 running in my living room 24/7. I'm quite happy with it (not too much worse then my PVR250 setup on my main computer). I record in close to good quality (it's nice how you can modify the bitrates and resolutions to maximize the capture quality to CPU utilization ratio). I use it ALL the time, having probably hundreds of things saved at any given time (even with deleting as I watch).
I had tried to get linux set up as a living room PC, but it was just taking too long compared to the Windows setup. Yeah, I know I could do it eventually, if I did the research into it, but considering BeyondTV did EVERYTHING I expected from it, I didn't feel it was worth the time. I'll figure out MythTV one of these days on my main PC now that I have a PVR250 instead of a Personal Cinema, but it's just a matter of time to get the drivers configured and all the other fun linux stuff.
Honestly, I think BeyondTV rocks. I have my Livingroom PC boot directly into a user account configured to start BTV in full screen mode. I use the ATI remote (awesome!) with girder (if you need the girder config for this, email me, and I can send it your way and explain the button configs I use). I don't need a monitor, keyboard, or mouse, just the remote.
Strengths:
Effective use of size with it's showsqueeze functions (basically transcodes MPEG-2 into WindowsMedia OR DivX). For shows I don't care about slight artifacting, such as Quantum Leap, I can squeeze it down from 1901MB down to 998MB with only SLIGHT artifacts (I find it viewable).
Full Screen UI is an effective 10 foot interface that does most everything I need (although I do use the web interface to handle manual compression).
NON WEB based TV listing. VERY easy to navigate, and now they have a search feature.
Can watch a recording as it records (which addresses the person who commented about missing the first 15 minutes). It's pretty common for me to wait 20 minutes into a show to start watching it, so I can skip the commercials and just delete the file when I'm done (sometimes I time it nearly perfectly so that I finish watching as the show ends).
Responsive dev staff. I got into the beta program, and had directly input into the evolution of the software (I suggested that on the recorded program details screen to show the type of file) and have exchanged emails with the developers when addressing bugs.
It simply works.
Weaknesses:
Details not as good as TV when used without hardware encoder. This really only affects watching sports for me. Basketball for instance can move too fast, causing pixilation.
Additionally, w/o hardware encoding, it really SHOULD be a standalone machine, or have a very beefy processor.
Web Interface is basically IE only
Scheduled recordings are on a per channel basis (in other words, if something is on ABC and ABC Family, it requires 2 seperate recording schedules).
Overall, I've been very pleased with it. It's the first PVR software I've felt comfortable using for the long haul (have used ATI, WinDVR, PowerDVR, and ShowShifter, and also attempted to use MythTV and Freevo, but none met my needs as well as BTV). I'm totally amped about the upcoming BeyondMedia product (read the details on their site. It supports DVD playing, Audio, and Photos in addition to the Video/TV). God, I sound like such a shill, but all I really am is a happy customer.
-- If you can't laugh at yourself, someone else will do it for you.
That's what I want to know... if you can't view the on screen display on the TV using arguably "the best" PVR card (consumer level) out there, that's pretty crappy and not useful for me.
From what I understand you can get this to work with MythTv but you have to find a X Driver for IVTV module and everything isn't a 100% stable yet (again from what I understand)
I guess I can only hope that the support of the OSS community continues and improves and makes a product that surpasses the propietary one...
e.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
I've always wanted to set up my own PVR solution, but I have satellite. Will it work ? The site mentions something about some required IR blaster hardware (ugh) or a "serial cable" (sounds better, but huh ?). So, does anyone use BeyondTV with a satellite dish ? If so, what else would I have to buy and install ?
>|<*:=
Pretty similar to my setup.
WinTV-PVR 350, 200GB HD, DVD burner, but for software I'm running MythTV instead.
I'm surprised Slashdot would mention Beyond TV without mentioning Myth, which is just as good (if not better) and runs under Linux.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
During recording with my PVR-350, I cannot notice ANY visible CPU usage other than an occasional small "blip", with my 1.1 GHz Athlon TBird.
Avermedia M179s go for about $80, and OEM PVR-250s (somewhat different than the retail ones, it's the "Media Center" version) can be found for $88 on eBay pretty often.
My PVR-350 is some of the best money I've ever spent on my machine.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Can you elaborate? Search keywords? Hopefully I'll be able to catch some news while I'm stuck in the mountains where the reception sucks (no problem getting 3 prayer channels on the weekend, but other than that and a lousy picture for a few carried football games, that's about it).
I took a look at route --help and man route, but can't find a -p flag. Can someone explain what the parent post command line actually does?
The ip address resolves to Insync. If that is the parent company of snapstream, then I'm guessing that the command line adds the ip address of the manufacturer, but adds an invalid computer on a subnet unlikely to be used. I'm guessing that this would prevent a connect failure, allowing the software to continue working? Is this correct?
Or maybe the block is to a reliable connection that does some type of authentication that allows the software to keep working by some magic?
Should I keep this command line in my linux how-to directory for some possible other emergency, and if so, how else could it help me?
Thanks. Newbie learning the ropes, newly converted from the dark side.
Not to get all elitist on you, but you're surfing the wrong site if those questions are serious.
fuck people who can't spell "allot".
it's more like : .NET to run" .NET
.... nah." Goddamit , I want "teh interweb" NOW, not in 5 minutes!
"This 200kb program requires
OK, no problem, I'll go get
".NET framework download is 22MB and will take approximately Umpteen Bumtillion minutes on a 28.8k modem to download"
Hmmm... 1 hour.... just to run program X to try out on a whim... 1 hour... nah.
I know, it's one off, but still the one-off stops a lot of non-broadband people in their tracks. And there's more poor modem saps out there than you think.
Even I go, "Hmmm. 5 minutes at 50K/s, to run program X
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
Only on slashdot would a lighthearted comparison between a Microsoft product and a linux product get modded down as Troll. Way to go, my ub3r-l337 brothers, how's life in your parents' basement treating you? Gotta go - I think I hear your mum calling for your laundry.